Minn. Couple Paid Off $82,000 Of Credit Debt In Four Years

As a successful software engineer living in the suburbs of
Minnesota, Travis Pizel never had an income problem.

With his wife, Vonnie, the couple pulled in a cool six figures
each year, more than enough to provide for their two children and
still take the occasional weekend getaway.

And if they couldn't afford something when they wanted it, Travis
knew exactly where to turn.

As tales of
debt often do, his began with one credit card that eventually
became two credit cards, then three, and so on. A few years into
his marriage, Travis had opened 13 lines of credit and was
officially hiding the bills from his wife each
month.

"I just
stopped talking about how much [debt we were in]," Travis told
BI. "Everyone else would go to bed at night and I would be trying
to figure out how to move credit balances around, get new credit
cards ... whatever it took to keep our finances going."

Within a decade, he
amassed $109,000 worth of debt.

It was the summer of 2009 when Pizel hit rock bottom. Chase
announced a higher minimum payment requirement, and he was
suddenly staring down the prospect of hundreds of dollars more in
payments. It was money they didn't have. His house of cards was on the brink of
collapse.

"Marriage is built on trust and I didn't do a good job on that,"
Travis said. "[My wife and I] had a frank discussion on how we
got there ... and when it was all over, we started looking for
solutions."

Determined to
avoid filing personal bankruptcy ("We felt really responsible for
the debt we racked up," he explained.), the couple hit the Web
for alternative options.

Debt
management companies (DMPs) aren't exactly the golden parachute
their name might bring to mind (and if a company portrays itself
as one, it could be a scam). They negotiate a
low-interest payment plan with lenders on the consumer's behalf.
In return, the consumer agrees to pay off their debts within a
certain window of time, typically three to five years, and the
DMP disperses a monthly payment across all proper channels. Their
fees for doing so are typically around $20/month, though the
Pizels pay $50 with their service.

After several
hours-long conversations with company representatives, the Pizels
signed up for 57 monthly payments of $2,489 each.

There was also
a catch: Once enrolled in the service, all of their credit
accounts were frozen.

"That was a big commitment to say we weren't going to use credit
cards anymore," Travis said. "Even when we enrolled in
the program, we had no idea what kind of lifestyle changes we
would have to make to make it work."

It was
time to start living within their means.

Plastic-free
life was a gradual adjustment. They made all the usual cuts like
cable, landline phones and fancy dinners, but it took a year
before they started to hit where it really hurt.

"For the first year, we still had a 500 gallon hot tub sitting in
our backyard," Travis said. "You start thinking, 'What are we
doing here?'."

They almost entirely halted their contributions to retirement
savings, and the weekend getaways ended. They got used to $1
movie rentals and family nights, and made extra cash from garage
sales. Christmas lists were trimmed to three presents per child.

Little by little, they made headway.

Four years into the program, they have paid down $82,000 of their
initial $109,000 debt load and have 13 payments left before
they're debt free. Travis now chronicles his journey out of debt
at Enemyofdebt.com.

"It's
exciting to see the end of that tunnel ... I just
wish I would have figured it out earlier," he said. "It's a lot
less stressful to have a partner and not trying to shoulder that
all by yourself."